Sword Gate House

The two massive iron gates flanking the entrance of the Sword Gate House feature crossed dueling swords forged directly into the metal. These gates were crafted in the nineteenth century by a local blacksmith who supposedly intended them for the city’s guardhouse but sold them to the owner of this mansion instead. The house itself served as a private residence and later as a boarding school for young women, where the students reportedly claimed that the swords rattled whenever a storm rolled through Charleston.